'Upper Fant Road' Part of our Life's tapestry !

[bob adams]

Thought it was time we had this for record!

Lots of you here have been through these doors many's a time and oft! or have had dealings with Eric in their steel career! I was in the shop a couple of years back having a natter with the man! Foolishly then I came away with photographing the shop but at least we have this.

This one is open to all you guys who have memories and dealings with Eric, Eileen, Anne-Marie.

Mr Snowball was undoubtedly 'his own man' .....charged you like a Gordon Highlander and twice as much on a Sunday!.... I know if he reads this that will make him smile!

If you chaps get your thoughts in gear this could be a very lengthy, interesting and entertaining Topic!

Tell us your stories of 'Broadway of Upper Fant Road'

A quote from Roger Humphries………
Eric Snowball is a great mate and has just retired and sold his shop in Upper Fant Road, but I was a regular customer at his shop in The Broadway as well as recording my very first album in the studio that was in the basement of the old shop and run by Dave Tewes.

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

Well theres a coincidence I just spoke to Eric today, He is not a well man ,just wants to sleep most of the time.... I helped him clear out the shop, it seemed like a history chapter closing, very fond memories of Eileen Bananas as we used to know her
I could not spell Budnikas or no knickers so Bananas seemed a viable alternative.
My first ShoBud came from the other shop Eric had on the Broadway but it did not carry the same vibes as "The Steel Mill"

[Ken Byng]

Sorry to hear that Eric is not well. He played a huge part in my love affair with pedal steel, and in 1972 supplied me with a beautiful D10 ZB 8+2 with blue birdseye aprons & necks, with natural birdseye tops to the cabinets. I will never forget Eric playing Together Again at full volume through a Fender Twin w/JBLs in the shop in The Broadway. Proper crucified my ears, but I thought it was heaven.

Eileen Budnikas arrived a few years later, and was the sweetest lady you could meet. At UFR, Eric would get any unsuspecting visiting steel player to play Danny Boy, just to wind up his sound crew upstairs who would all shout out in unison - NOT DANNY BOY!! Eric would kill himself laughing at that.

He is a good man who was a major pioneer in the British steel guitar scene. I hope he can return to full fitness.

[bob adams]

On a beautiful sunny morning I awoke on the driver’s seat of a Morris Marina (‘Harvest Gold’ naturally, was there any other?) at 6.00am on the banks of the Medway River having driven all night from Scotland with a pocket full of bank loan and soul full of dreams. I don’t recall my salary at the time but I remember my ‘monthly’ expenses float was £50 so that probably paints the relevant picture. The loose change in my pocket ran to a bacon roll and tea at a café I found where the owner had just opened up around 7.30am and felt sorry for me, unbelievably he was from Hyndland in Glasgow 5mins from my home, needless to say we had some craic while I killed time waiting on Eric getting his arse out of bed. I meandered up the road and Eric duly appeared!.. If the little single window on that broadway shop had been preserved, my DNA would be on it, that is for sure! When he arrived and I got inside it was worse, did I fancy those Emmons PSGs! Like you could never believe! What did I take home, ‘The Fuzzy’ God bless it!...But heyho it played many a gig, even the Hollywood army barracks in Belfast, where from a packed room I was left playing to ‘an empty’ when the whistle blew and duty called they all vanished in a puff of smoke! a strange experience never to be repeated or forgotten!! Anyway, that little steel served me well until the ZB trade happened a couple of years later! …. Before my little sojourn south back then I remember my retiring, small in stature, little bowler hatted, tight arsed ‘Bank of Scotland’ manager saying, ‘what is the purpose of your loan Mr Adams! .. When I told him! …He said, ‘and what if you can play it!!!The Cheeky little Jeremy ‘Hunt! .... I said!.. I’ll play it if it kills me! Well I still am, and it still does, and it’s all Eric’s fault! Without him I would be less stressed and so much richer, but like numbers of us, I can't help it!............I love it with a passion!

[ZBSD-10]

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Lin and me called in to see Eric when we drove back home to Corfu in 2004

Well, I had to get my four penneth in did'nt I ?
After trading in my '54 Les Paul for a Rose Morris (I wonder who had the best out of that deal ???) ,it sat in the front
room of our house in Swansea for about three months as I could'nt even tune it !! I mean, what guage string do you
use to get F# above G# ?? anyway, I saw an ad in the Melody Maker giving an insight to the E9th tuning and now I
wondered if I had dropped a mighty bollock taking on one of these formidable machines !!
I travelled up to Maidstone to visit the renown Eric Snowball, first words from him when we walked in was " What the
f--k do you want ?" Feeling rather deflated I explained who I was and what I wanted he actually, and this is for the
record, took us over the pub and bought us dinner ! never heard of before and probably since !
I eventually became an area rep for him and met a lot of great guys Gordon included.
When they moved to Upper Fant Road is wher I first encountered Eileen, what a lady and had an equal sense of humour as
you will see when you read the letter she sent to me telling me of Eric having to have his appendix removed,
It is sad that Eric is'nt in the best of health, he still phones us for a chat, this is an important part of the British steel
guitar circuit, not to be forgotten, hope you like the photo's

[Ken Byng]

Frank
Well done for keeping the memorabilia - I had a load of stuff in the loft of a previous house, but I guess I forgot to transfer it when I moved. John Edmed tempted me to go with his business as a rep, but I still have fond memories of 2 Upper Fant Road. Eric was very much the hub of much that was happening musically in the southern part of the UK. I still have a '74 Telecaster that I bought from Eric.

Eric played with Ed Pearson's band around that time, and went to a gig in London with him to see the band which was really enjoyable.

[bob adams]

My mid '70s purchase from Upper Fant Road. I thought it was the Bee's Knees!!

Crap picture from one of those great big plastic polaroids!! But the guitar colour is about right!

[ZBSD-10]

I have the actual price list that Eric used to buy the ZB's in for , I'll have to think about posting it as
I don't want to be held responsible for any suicides that might happen when it's read !!

[Ken Byng]

I paid £832 for my first ZB D10. That really was a lot of shekels in 1972. You could buy a 2 up 2 down terraced house in Mid Wales for that money then. In real terms pedal steels are a steal these days compared to then. The exchange rate in those days was around $1.50 to the pound, and Eric used to say that by the time he paid all the shipping and duties, he didn't make a lot on each guitar.

[ZBSD-10]

This the first photo of Gordon's blue ZB which, according Eric, was the first D-10 he imported into the UK.

How many of us had one of these ? Fuzzy was the forunner of Excel steels and were'nt bad for the money !

Another shot of the changer head of the Fuzzy D-10

Now here's a poser, this was amongst the photo's (which ,incidently all these come from !),a lad with his ZB, anybody know who it is ?? all it says on the back is "From Robert", somebody must know him !!

I'll dig out the list especially for you Ken and put it on then,
Here's a couple of Upper Fant Road related photo's.